Spencer Cox, a 2001 graduate of Washington and Lee University School of Law and Lt. Governor of the State of Utah, is receiving national attention for a speech he delivered on Monday in Salt Lake City at a vigil for the victims of the Orlando shooting.

Cox, a Republican state legislator who was selected to serve as the state’s lieutenant governor in 2013, expressed sympathy for the LGBTQ community in the wake of the tragedy and conveyed his hope that the country would rise above partisan divides in seeking solutions to the challenges posed by mass violence.

“Today we need fewer Republicans and fewer Democrats. Today we need more Americans,” said Cox.

A Utah native who came to W&L after graduating from Utah State University, Spencer was elected in 2012 to the Utah House of Representatives. Prior to being elected to the legislature, he’d served as mayor of Fairview, the rural Utah town where he was born and raised.

After graduating from W&L, Spencer clerked for U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart and then joined the Salt Lake City law firm of Fabian and Clendenin. He eventually returned to Fairview and served as vice president of CentraCom, a rural telecommunications company.

Washington and Lee University provides a liberal arts education that develops students' capacity to think freely, critically, and humanely and to conduct themselves with honor, integrity, and civility. Graduates will be prepared for life-long learning, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society.